Move Closer
by GoldenGirl
Summary: Sawyer and Kate go skinny dipping. Complete


Title: Move Closer

Author: GoldenGirl

Pairing: Sawyer/Kate

Disclaimer: I don't own Lost

Spoilers: Finale

Status of Fic: Complete

A/N: This is a sequel to my other stand-alone, "A Deal."

**Move Closer**

Sawyer sat in his airplane chair reading an article on carburetors in his car magazine. It was too dark to read even though the beach was illuminated by the firelight from scattered bonfires. By now, Sawyer knew enough about cars that if one of them ever crashed onto the island, he could probably rebuild it and have it running good as new. This, he knew, was a ridiculous thought, but ridiculous thoughts ran rampant when he had absolutely nothing to do.

Remembering his deal with Kate, he was careful not to touch the magazine with his left hand. He clumsily fumbled, trying to turn the page using his thumb while the rest of his fingers kept the pages from spilling over. He dropped the magazine just as Jack walked up to him.

"Sawyer." This was a typical greeting from Jack and Sawyer was beginning to wonder if the man even knew what the meaning of 'hello' was.  
"Yeah?" he asked, picking up his mag. He chose to nix the hello as well, because, truth be told, he was never one to set examples.  
"You got a minute? Locke needs some more firewood for the boar."

Sawyer finally raised his eyes to look at him, trying to see if he was serious. "You want me to go chop up some wood?" He asked, incredulous.  
"I'd ask anyone else, believe me, but," he paused, shrugging, "you seem to know your way around an axe. Plus, you really haven't been helping out much lately." Jack spoke without reserve, never hesitant to put Sawyer in his place. 

Recently Sawyer's shoulder was feeling a lot more like a normal shoulder should but he still couldn't comprehend why Jack would expect him to start doing some manual labor with it.  
"I havent been helping out because I'm recovering from a gunshot wound." He said the words slowly, as if Jack was too dumb to understand him otherwise.

Suddenly, it dawned on him. Either Jack really wanted Sawyer to mess up his arm or Jack really wanted to mess up his arm and lose his deal with Kate. He smiled knowingly as the epiphany started to settle in.

"She put you up to this, didn't she?"  
Now it was Jack's turn to be confused. "Who put me up to what?"  
"Kate!" Sawyer spat. "She told you to get me to carry something so that she could get herself out of the deal!" He said it incredulously, talking to himself more than Jack, but he had garnered the other man's full attention.  
"What deal?"

Hearing her name being called not too far away, Kate approached both of them with her arms crossed across her chest.  
"You boys talking about me?"  
Sawyer shot her an accusing look but the way he did it Kate knew it was nothing serious. She was curiously amused as to what exactly they were talking about.  
"You really think I'm gonna go help Jacko here and risk messing up our deal?"  
"What are you talking about?" She was utterly confused. What did Jack have to do with their deal?

"What deal?" Jack asked her, though he seemed to be getting ignored by the both of them at the moment.  
"I haven't lifted anything with my bad arm and I ain't gonna start now," Sawyer continued. "Not till it's completely healed."  
"Good," Kate replied, content. "But what does Jack have to do with any of this?"  
"He's asking me to go chop up some wood," Sawyer explained. "You didn't ask him to do that?"  
"You asked him to chop wood?" Kate asked Jack. "But what about his arm?"  
"His arm should be fine by now."  
"Really?" Sawyer asked. "Completely healed?"  
"Well, does it feel sore?" Jack prodded.  
"No."  
"Then I think you're fine."

Sawyer smiled and turned to Kate. "You hear that, Freckles?"  
"I heard," she answered..

The day he was waiting for for far too long had finally come. Sawyer was beaming now. "Guess I'll be seeing you tonight, sweetcheeks."  
"Tonight?" It took her by surprise.  
"Say a half hour," Sawyer said. "You know where."  
Before she could protest and convince him to push their little swim off, he walked away, leaving her alone with Jack.

"What was all that about?" He asked.  
Kate wasn't sure if should even try to explain or not. Informing Jack of her plans tonight would probable cause some unneeded tension to stir up between them. At the same time she also wanted to see what his reaction would be.  
"It was just a deal we made with him," she explained. "If he didn't lift anything until his arm heeled then I'd go swimming with him." Choosing her words carefully, she replaced 'skinny dipping' with 'swimming' to lesser the blow- if it was even a blow at all. 

"Swimming?" he asked, casually, though there was a trace of cynicism in his voice. "You had to know that's a loser's bet," he went on. "Sawyer never lifts a finger anyway. And his arm would eventually healed."  
"I just did it so he wouldn't hurt his arm any more."

A tight smile appeared on Jack's face. He didn't know what to believe but it wasn't like he had the right to have a problem with any of this. "Ok," he said. "Have fun on your swim." He began walking back from where he'd come.

As much as she tried to avoid the tension between her and Jack, it always had a way of coming to the surface. A swim would probably relieve her of it, though, she thought.

There was no path to the waterfall and even if there was one it would've been to dark to see it. So when Sawyer headed out to go find it, he was doing it blindly. He had a torch, but it was more trouble than help as he tried to avoid a forest fire. As he trudged along, wondering if he was going in circles, he cursed himself for not going with Kate. She was probably already there, naked and waiting. Well, probably not naked, but if he didnt get there soon there was a good chance he'd never get to see her with her clothes off. The thought pushed him to rush.

Following the sound of the waterfall, and a light glimmer visible through the leaves, Sawyer finally found it. He walked along the rim of it, until he reached her torch illuminated and was poking out of the ground. Just as he'd noticed her overstuffed backpack, her head popped up from under the water. Sawyer realized that she'd already gotten undressed and started skinny dipping without him.

"Hey," she said, spotting him.  
"You already took your clothes off," he muttered, dejectedly.  
She simply shrugged.

Sawyer sighed deeply. He should have been prepared for this, but he wasn't. And although he wanted nothing more than to dive into that water with her, he had to have some more fun with this situation.

Kate treaded in the water, trying to stay afloat in one place. She watched Sawyer carefully, waiting for him to take off his clothes and get in. She was trying not to be too obvious when looking at him now as he was about to take off his clothes, but he was just standing there doing absolutely nothing. And the act of doing absolutely nothing was surprisingly commanding her attention.

Very slowly she realized that he wasn't just standing by idly but that his hips were subtly swaying from side to side. Some might've even mistaken it for...dancing.

"Sawyer?" she asked, confused, trying to take this in. "What are you doing?"  
He, in turn, ignored her and continued to dance putting his upper body into it now. His hand crawled onto the fabric of his shirt where he carefully undid the top button. Pretty soon all the buttons were undone and he flung his shirt open, tossing it harshly onto the ground, all the while practicing some pelvic thrusting.  
It dawned on Kate that she was being privy to nothing short of a striptease.  
"Sawyer! What are you doing!" She repeated the same words she'd just said a moment ago but this time her confusion was replaced with utter shock.

"What?" Sawyer asked, feigning innocence. "We're taking off our clothes here! One of us oughta strip."

He smiled coyly as he ceremoniously unzipped his fly. Kate wouldn't even try to keep a straight face anymore, and she suspected Sawyer was grinning because he saw the amusement in her expression. She really couldn't help it. It was too much fun watching Sawyer attempt to dance.

Sawyer was thrilled that Kate seemed to like his moves. He twirled around once more and rubbed his chest with one hand as the other held up his loose jeans. Finally, letting them fall to the ground, his mood was considerably dampened when the expression on Kate's face changed. She looked like she was trying not to laugh, and this was confirmed when she brought her hand to her mouth. "Nice boxers," she called out.

Sawyer looked at her questioningly and then down at his only remaining article of clothing. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten he was wearing his bright green Scooby Doo boxers. He looked down at the damn dog stenciled on the front with the words "Sooby Dooby Dooooo" coming out of his damn mouth in a word bubble. This is just wonderful, he thought, bitterly.

"It's not like I have that big an underwear selection on this damn island!" He shouted, but now Kate couldn't help herself. She let out a fit of giggles. This had definitely killed the mood. He quickly stripped himself of the shorts and dove into the water after her.

When he resurfaced, pushing his head above the water, he expected to see Kate, but she wasn't there. He turned around, thinking he had just come up facing the wrong way but she wasn't anywhere.

"Hardi har har," he exclaimed, his voice so loud that even someone in the woods could hear him. "You can come up now."

He waited, but the water only calmed around him.   
"Freckles?" Sawyer looked below him, trying to see through the dark liquid but all he could see was the reflection of the moonlight. "Kate?" He was starting to get worried and although he worried a lot for her- probably more than he ought to- he hated the feeling. Panic. His eyes gradually enlarged with every passing second until they couldn't get any larger.

He plunged back into the water and looked around frantically even though his own limbs were barely visible. When he came back up for air he was met with a devilish look in Kate's eyes.  
"Hi," she said simply. 

He breathed deeply, making up for the minutes he'd just spent holding his breath above and under the water. He looked at her, relieved and annoyed simultaneously, but more annoyed noticing how much fun she was having at his expense.

"Are you tryin' to give me a heart attack!" Yelling at her was no use since the longer he looked at her, the more she destroyed his resolve.

"Sorry." And although she said it, she obviously didn't mean it. In fact she began swimming away, nonchalantly, not bothering to see if Sawyer would follow her.  
But of course, he did.

She swam in such a graceful manner, expertly moving so that the water became a sort of a blanket, covering her wherever she wished to be covered.  
Watching her wearing nothing but water and moonlight was absolute torture for Sawyer. He tried to keep up, but his style of swimming was a little less coordinated and he splashed a lot more than he meant to.  
And like with most things he didn't like doing because he simply wasn't good at them, he stopped.

"Where are you going?"  
"I'm swimming," Kate explained, as if it was obvious. "Isn't that what we're supposed to be doing?"  
Sawyer thought for a minute. "No!"  
Kate smirked. "Sorry to disappoint you."

Sawyer should have expected this sort of attitude from her. He knew that if she was anything, she was a tease. He'd even told her so. In hindsight, maybe he shouldn't have. That way she wouldn't have to live up to it.

Everything she did purposefully teased him. Even the way she was looking back at him now over her shoulder. The evocative gleam in her eye demanding him to follow her around the pool of water like a lap dog, and he'd have no choice but to do it.  
But he knew better this time.

Sawyer began swimming away from her towards the edge of the pond, near the waterfall.  
When she no longer felt his abrasive splashing, she stopped, turning to look for him. He was far from her now, and in the darkness she almost couldn't see his shoulders and head sticking out of the water. It looked like he'd found something to sit on because he was perfectly still, not having to paddle to stay afloat.

"What are doing?" she called out.  
He shrugged, looking around him, casually. "Not swimming."  
If she was so determined to swim, he was going to make her swim to him.

A small smile crept on Kate's face as she paddled in place, unsure of what to do now. She didn't want to swim alone and as inexplicable as it was, she found herself missing the feel of his splash. She realized how far away he was and how isolated she felt with only ominous-looking water surrounding her. So she swam to him with the false excuse that one of the torches was planted near by and the light was better where he was. But only a part of that was true. Just like on land, she gravitated towards him.

Sawyer smiled to himself when he saw her coming his way. The water was getting shallower as she swam out to the edge, but it was still pretty deep where Sawyer sat. She had finally reached him and the only way she could stand on the ground was if half her head was under water. She swore she could almost hear Sawyer chuckle as she attempted it but couldn't be sure. She swam a little closer to him, wordlessly- the only noise coming from the waterfall crashing down not too far from where they were. The water was still deep but she couldn't risk getting any closer under the circumstances.

Instinctively, Kate knew how dangerous this was. Being so close and so alone and so... bare. There was nothing between them but water. The barrier was not a strong one. Especially not when he looked at her like that. It was so much easier to be around him when he spoke and the air between them was filled with sardonic commentary. But when he stayed quite like this and only looked at her, she had to look away. His stare burned through her.

"The water's nice," she said, dully. She had to say something.  
"Yeah," he drawled, but he really wasn't paying much attention to the water. Her steady paddling caused her to bobble somewhat and it curiously fascinated him. The way she kept her mouth open, letting some water flow freely in and out of it. He hoped she wouldn't notice when his eyes fell to her lips. He liked to think he knew a lot about women and he knew they liked to be looked in the eye.

Though he liked the bobbing, she needed something to hold onto and when his hands cruised under water towards her, she took them, as if her hand had already been on its own path to meet his. She had a good grip now and the bobbing significantly stopped.

"So how long after we set sail did you know?"

Kate didn't quite understand the question and she had to think for a moment at what he said.  
Sensing this, he rephrased it.  
"When we came back, Sayid said you'd all known the raft went down. How long was it till everyone knew the it failed?"

Kate didn't have to think very long. "About 3 days," she replied. "That's when a lot of the wreckage started to wash up... Enough to be sure."  
Sawyer seemed to consider this. "Would've been fun to be here when that happened."  
At first Kate thought he was just being sarcastic but then she saw that he meant it.  
"Fun?" she asked, almost insulted. "You think it would've been funi?"  
"Yeah!" he answered defensively, but his expression said, 'what are you getting so upset about?'

"Do you know how hard–" she stopped herself. "Sun was imourning the loss of her husband."  
She looked at him, accusingly and now it was his turn to look away. He sighed, feeling guilty but also not in the mood to argue. "What I meant was, it would've been like having a front row seat to your own funeral. Seeing who missed ya'," he raised his eyes again. "Who cried."  
Kate looked at him briefly before returning her gaze to the water.  
He wasn't going to ask her if she cried for him. He was too afraid of the answer.

"Yeah well," Kate began, "Lets just say it wasn't all sunshine and daisies while you guys were gone. It still isn't."

Walt was still missing and Michael was a wreck. Jin was recovering from his injuries, which thankfully weren't too critical. At least not as critical as Sawyer's had been. And though the others hadn't come after them, everyone on the island was still on edge, too afraid to venture from the group. Thinking about this, Kate suddenly realized that what she was doing was potentially dangerous. It was dark and she was in a part of the island that, supposedly, only she and Sawyer knew of. And yet, she wasn't worried or scared. Watching Sawyer and how content he seemed, she doubted he even considered any of the risk involved in what they were doing. But the way he held onto her said otherwise.

"That's why I agreed to this," She continued. "It's relaxing. A nice escape."  
"Oh so that's why you came," Sawyer replied, grinning. "Cuz it's relaaaxing," he stretched out the word.  
"Yep."  
"It has nothing to do with wanting to see me naked."  
She gasped back a laugh. "Nope."  
"So you're telling me that if Jack asked you to go skinny dipping, you go?"  
Kate mused. "He never asked me."

Sawyer stared at her, trying to read her expression . "That's not a no," he protested.  
Kate simply shrugged, enjoying the look of contempt in his face. At this point, he really didn't have anything to worry about, though. 

"Are you getting tired of holding me?" She asked after a few seconds when her attention fell to the scar on his shoulder.  
"Never." Though he said it in a faux-gallant voice, it came out more sincere than he thought. "You sure?" Kate asked, not taking her eyes off his shoulder. "That looks painful."  
"It's just skin, Freckles. It don't show what's going on on the inside.  
"Of course it does!"

Sawyer shook his head and smirked. "Did you see that scar on my leg when I took off my pants?"  
Kate shook her head. "It was probably too dark to notice."  
"It's the nastiest most painful looking thing. It's the reason I didn't take off my pants the first time we went swimming here. Also, I wasn't wearing any underwear then," he said, grinning mischievously.

Kate smiled. She looked down in between them and Sawyer got a bemused expression on his face. "Whatcha looking for?"  
"The scar." As soon as she'd said she realized what it was it seemed she was looking for and she heard Sawyer chuckle.  
"It's too dark to see it," he exclaimed. "Here." With her hand still in his, he brought it down to where his scar was. He was seated, so his legs were already bent and high enough in the water to reach.

She was a little hesitant at first, not sure where Sawyer was leading her hand, but she also trusted he wouldn't do anything too stupid if he valued his life. She was surprised, however, to find that the scar was located much higher on his leg than she had anticipated. Sawyer rested her hand on the front side of his upper thigh and then left it there so that he could hold on to her waist.

"You feel it?" Sawyer asked.  
Touching this precise local caused a bright shade of crimson to appear on Kate's cheeks.  
Her fingers lightly grazed his damaged skin. But more than the coarseness there, she felt the goose bumps that formed under her imprint.

So much for his theory that skin wasn't representative of what one was feeling.

"How'd you get it?" She asked. "The scar." She was almost afraid to ask, foolishly thinking that all his scarring was emotional. But she also wanted to hear something about his past. The idea that maybe he'd fallen out of a tree house as a kid amused her. It was both easy and hard to imagine Sawyer as a kid.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he said, simply. But Kate's eyes pressed on, expectantly.  
Sawyer bent his head forward and sighed, giving in.   
"It happened about 5 years ago in Vegas. I got messed up with some guys and they decided to play a little joke on me."  
Kate was starting to regret asking him.

Sawyer went on though, ignoring the somber look on her face. "In the middle of the night they locked me up in a hotel room where these two little old ladies were staying. They were there for some knitting expo."  
Kate's expression changed with the sudden turn of events.  
"Anyway, they thought I was some sort of a male prostitute or a stripper or something and they really wanted a piece of me. I tripped over one of their open bags and a damn scissor stabbed me in the leg."

A few moments of silence lapsed as Kate looked at Sawyer dubiously. "You cannot be serious," she said slowly.  
Sawyer shrugged. "I told you you weren't gonna believe me."  
She searched his face, trying to see if he was lying or not but he looked to be telling the truth.

"You don't have a single scar anywhere on your body, do you?" He asked her. "Yes, I do. The one on my chin."  
He focused on the bottom of her face, craning his head to try and see a scar, but got nothing. When he looked at her blankly, she lifted her chin up and grinned widely. "You can see it better when I smile."

"That!" he asked, squinting slightly. "I thought that was just a misshaped dimple." She let out a small laugh. "So how'd you get it?" Sawyer went on.  
Kate hesitated, not really sure why. "I fell out of a tree house."

Sawyer seemed to think this was highly amusing.   
"What?" she asked.  
"You, falling out of a tree," he said through a chuckle. "You're Jane of the jungle! You climb trees all day."  
"Well I couldn't let one failed attempt stop me."

They were silent for a moment, just looking at each other, until Sawyer leaned in to kiss her. His lips barely brushed hers before she pulled away slightly.  
"What are you doing?" she whispered.  
"I'm not letting a failed attempt stop me," he responded. He had to admit she made him feel nervous when no other woman had. He wasn't very sure how to handle her and when she pulled away, he was certain he'd done something wrong. But she seemed to understand what he'd said and when he began kissing her again she didn't pull back. He broke away for a moment and she lightly resting her forehead on his.

"The first time wasn't a failed attempt she said in a low voice.  
"You elbowed me in the jaw," he whispered in her ear and she could tell he was smiling.  
"Well," she considered, "maybe."  
She took his lips in hers once again and they continued to kiss under the moonlight, letting themselves move closer.

THE END.


End file.
